It all started with him:
Gassan Dietrich Zeineddine, a German-South African, with Lebanese roots who became obsessed with olive oil. With 28 years of age this obsession has led him to look for olive farms in Valencia, while being confined in Madrid during Covid times. With 30 years in November 2022 Gassan finally bought the land located in "Canal de Navarres", a region known for its fertile agricultural land throughout centuries of Islamic and Spanish rule. After 3 years of owning the olive grove Gassan became fascinated with the yearly cycle of harvest and preparation.
The day of the notary
Before the purchase, however, Gassan did not even know when the harvest time is. On the day of the notary, Gassan was so excited that he drove to the land afterwards and realised someone was picking olives on his newly purchased farm. On that day, Gassan realised many things, for one, that abandoned land in the area gets worked regardless of its owner. Most importantly, that day Gassan knew that November is olive picking time!
When to pick olives, was not as relevant to him as it was more important that the acquisition was well thought through considering the big picture. He checked over a course of 2 years, if it was possible to construct on the land, if it had irrigation in place and how much yield it would bring approximately per year, if the area was protected, among other things.
Well, it was sort of thought through, but what it meant to develop 80.000m2 or 8 hectares is still an evolving task.
The Oliviero
After officially becoming a "young farmer" in Spain, Gassan is becoming truly an Oliviero who is obsessed with aspects of quality olive oil. Sure the standards of Extra Virgin Olive Oil are super important, but to get there is a journey. On top of that the regenerative principles of agriculture are much more important. Moving to regenerative practices, Gassan applies traditional knowledge and combines it with emerging knowledge together. Meaning, do you burn the branches freshly cut or do you use them as mulch, or even use them to plant them?
On top of that, as an Oliviero, Gassan really wants to focus on experimenting with different harvesting times and play with olive oil flavours, like you would do with a blend of grapes and wine.
The yearly Cycle
There can be debate on where the yearly cycle starts. For Gassan everything evolves around the olive itself in every detail possible. In May the olive tree starts blooming. In this period it is already between 20-30degrees celsius during the day, and on the olive grove are many more species that flower at the same time. So it is marvellous walking around the grove and smelling the perfumes of nature.
The usual thing is that less than 5% of flowers are turning into olives. In the image to the right, you can see fried flowers in brown, and white flowers which have miniature olives emerging.
